because my first experience with obama was people saying he wasn't black enough. so this was, you know, they don't like him, they don't like how he's doing, and so that's what, that's the word they used to describe him. >> can i tell you what's funny about that? there were actually comedians who joked about that at the election. sure enough, it took all -- [laughter] a few months for that to move from humor. so now on to the books. jelani -- or, excuse me, dr. cobb. [laughter] okay. i thought one of the most interesting observations in your book which i actually had not thought about until i read it in your book is the fact that black candidates have historically done better in states and districts where there are less black voters. why is that? >> well, one of the things that's interesting is this, when barack obama won in iowa, people had this kind of hallelujah

moment and were like, you know, a black person won in a state where there's, where there's a 4% black population. and, you know, i was saying of course he won in a state where there's a 4% population. but as i was saying in the book, white voters in mississippi would not get within a cotton field of a black candidate -- [laughter] ..

question, the number of poor black people in iowa. the number of questions people have in the other places. there is not -- we also forget when jesse jackson ran, there was by and large the same reason or at least one of the dynamics involved here. >> they both know we have not finished the books but that made it half way. we want to be as informed as possible and this is one of their rare times when they're looking for that, that is not always the case.

being a political junkie and anyone wondering you won't put down because they both provide lenss through which he has not been examined. one of these things both of your books had in common is there's so much focus in the we and here tonight about obama's complicated relationship with white america. a complicated history with black america which is much more long and drawn-out than superficial what we saw in the campaign trail. there is a real history there. one thing this leads me to asking is i am sure dr. cobb has experienced this, with you are a minority, a woman, in terms of power we are minorities, where you are african-american, you are undoubtedly compared to other minorities particularly in your field.

it never ceases to amaze me how i run into someone who confuses me with another black woman i look nothing like or who will say i actually prefer you to some other black woman. i am trying to hang with james carville. can't you put me in the same category as him? one thing you did a great job talking about is complicated relationships with some of the men you have been compared to. you wrote about the hands of bobby rush. can you talk about that? and his relationship today. >> that was the first time i encountered obama. it was december of 1999. i was staff writer for the chicago reader and my editor who i saw last night send me to the

south side to cover bobby rush's campaign. >> for anyone who doesn't know, everyone else here does. >> congressman from the first district in illinois that had a black congressman. longer than every district in the united states. bobby rush in the 60s was the ruling triumvirate of the black panther party. the only survivor of the black panther party. he wasn't there when the police raided west side home in personal went on to get into politics. in 1999, ran against mayor daley. mayoral elections for many

years, the white candidate and the black candidate basically -- people thought he was vulnerable. a young state senator in the minority and the state said it was pretty impatient that he wasn't able to get anything done and eagerness to move up. he was going to challenge bobby rush against the advice of his colleagues and i asked why did you cover the story? one of our editorial assistants say everyone on the south side was calling obama barack your mama to check out. in that election the campaign that rush ran against obama was that he was not really a black chicago and. he didn't belong on the south side and he was a full of whites at the university of chicago. there was this obama project

that was masterminded by the university of chicago to push him up the ladder and the university of chicago has a bad reputation especially among the black nationalist community because it was behind urban renewal and the 50s and 60s that pushed a lot of blacks away from hyde park. there was a third candidate named diane schroeder. he gave me the famous quote i still see everywhere that obama is a white man in black face in our community. obama really didn't do anything to dispelled that. he was a very stiff, professorial candidate. he was not inspiring. in a room of a dozen people, nobody got excited the way you see now. i remember asking him why should you be for a congressman since you are not a native of versus outside? he said something to the effect

that someone like me, i was president of the harvard law review and could be doing a lot of others things. i could be at a wall street law firm or back in hawaii. that proves i am committed to chicago. i really have to want to be here which is an incredibly arrogant thing to say. he was not able to connect to the black community the way bobby rush did. i saw bobby rush speak at a church and he made a speech about how the internet was a debacle because it was taking knowledge that belongs to the elite and giving it to everybody. obama -- rush beat obama 61%-31%. in 2004 when obama ran for the senate bobby rush supported one of his white rivals, blair all who was a millionaire who had enough money to give bobby

rush's half-brother a job on his payroll. obviously was out of spite towards obama and he has since admitted that. it was out of his smallness that he didn't support obama. as soon as obama won, he has been a big supporter to this day. >> one of the best plans in your book was you said in terms of the obama presidential campaign jesse jackson cannot decide if he wanted to be the madonna of the campaign or the media. we are talking the greek tragic heroine. let's get that out of the way. can you explain what you meant by that? i will ask my follow-up. >> does he want to be the madonna who gives birth to the

miraculous creation of the media who killed her own offspring? that was going through jesse jackson's head. it was hard to get a real understanding of where he was coming from throughout 2008 or 2007, one of the things when he made the unconscionable statement he made on fox news, first-time he ever had the jenna tally of a future president threatened. >> perfect way to say it for family programming. >> i thought that there had to be something deeper at play. it wasn't hard to understand. in the relentless barrage of media coverage about the

election, we saw nothing about jesse jackson in the campaign. i don't mean that in symbolic terms of. the political scientist, ron walther who passed away recently, in the university, i called him -- >> worked closely with the jackson campaign. >> in the '88 campaign i called him and asked him what if the election was taking place with his thinking was panned when we saw this complicated math that went with the proportional allotment of delegates, if a person gets a this or that many, one of the main things jesse

jackson sought in 1988 campaign. they wanted a proportional -- did you have in mind it would help the black presidential candidate? you didn't dream it would. what you did believe -- more people of color, and the national party. going to the convention, does an about-face, six months just shy of being christlike and you should vote for him. when jesse jackson endorsed michael dukakis he wanted among other things this proportional system. were it not be proportional

system it would be eaten to obama's clock. obama won a little small state and hillary clinton won the big state. they cancel each other out. obama won the 11 consecutive primary caucuss after that. we call that the 16 months massacre. jesse felt a particular kind of way that no one could acknowledge that. he was reduced to pitching himself which never should have happened. >> is that the media? >> i really think it is. jesse jackson, where people were making the story line that obama was post racial that meant jesse jackson was mega racial. people weren't interested in that story in 2007/2008 but it was an important story and jesse

was protesting i have a seat at this party. i was part of this process. it came out in a particular way that no one opened a door but that wasn't an important aspect of the obama story line. >> i want to read exactly how dr. cobb's title came to be, obama was selling people on hold. jackson pointed out he would say hope is one thing and substances another. that is what jackson would say. >> jackson was inspiration to obama back to 1984. obama saw him on stage with gary hart and walter mondale and began to think maybe this is something i could do. it is interesting one of the reasons jackson ran for president was because washington was just elected mayor and jackson -- he took jackson's place in chicago. this famous picture on election

night where jackson tries to wash his arm and washington put it back down. >> a picture's worth a thousand words. >> after obama losing that campaign to rushed people said you have to learn to give a speech so he started going to rainbow push meetings and the jacksons did a lot to give him street credit in 2004 all over the south side. there were billboards of jesse jackson jr. standing next to barack obama. >> he was also a national chair of obama's campaign which i am sure made thanksgiving interesting. >> one of the things that was interesting was the way that obama's blackness came to be. for a never thought that african-americans had a black

litmus test. if for no other reason than we saw in number of candidates in the 2006 election whose blackness was not in question but were roundly trounced. michael steele being one of them. he ran for senate in maryland and got 22% of the black vote. lynn swann -- >> better than most republicans. >> but less of the black vote that his white rival. there was no question about michael steele. people would never have questioned his blackness of all. but wins one in pennsylvania who got trounced. these are three african-americans who did not receive a majority of the black vote. it is not a question of lineage or slavery or epidermal affiliation. it was more complicated than that.

that being the case, in south carolina people had to deployed michele obama. it was -- i was interviewing people who were there for the south carolina primary. they took to putting his picture up, the sun rise, they took to putting his picture up and people would see him and see his harvard background and the next question would be who is he married to? this picture of him and michele and girls together and the fact that barack obama was an unknown quantity. michele robinson was a very known quantity. lot of african-americans knows someone like her.

we kind of a -- they have an ambivalent relationship to barack obama because they love a black man running around thinking he could be president of the united states so that was part of this thing, needing this sarah getty institute into a way that was understandable. >> this reminds me of a line in the new york magazine. they had a quote from al sharpton who said something to the effect that i ran into the shower and she cornered me. he hadn't announced who he was supporting and he said he could use a little bit more of her. that told you everything you needed to know. >> the state senator who for indicate after being on the floor, just tormentor for years who would say you figured out what color you are, if you are white or black. he was reluctant to support

obama when he ran for the u.s. senate. the state -- brought in several times. what is your problem with this guy? whig finally convinced him was michele. don't worry about him, i have got him. hearing that from a black woman, that was good enough for me. >> i like to piggyback on something we talked about a couple minutes ago. the word post racial. it comes up a bit in your book. i am going to admit my bias. i find it rather grating of the use of the terminology post racial. one of the quotes on bobby rush, obama 5 the district was ready for a transition to a post racial generation that could reach out to whites. and the title of your epilogue. do you both believe we are in a post racial time?

because i don't. >> what i meant by that was one thing obama found out in that race was as a politician he was not meant to be their representative of one particular race. at that time he would be a better candidate for the senate because whites would have felt comfortable with his background in a white family. and after that debacle this is the best we are going to do. so maybe transracial may have then a better word. >> one of the things that was most grating to me about the post racial story line was that pointed out to people that the fifteenth amendment which gave african-american men the right

to vote was ratified in 1870. so between 1870, and 2004, african-americans have been voting for candidates that didn't look like as for 134 years at least. in one election in 2008, part of the white population voted for someone of a different race and suddenly we have gotten beyond race. if we have been waiting to vote for someone who looked like as we would have sat out presidential elections for a century and a quarter. it was condescending in a particular kind of way and also inaccurate. >> everything. as we are seeing. >> the kind of best ideals of the civil rights movement have always been african-americans who are interested in representing causes and issues

and not necessarily being quarantined in a particular identity or particular set of causes. to say all of a sudden this means you are not opposed racial or whatever is condescending in a way. >> the race obama ran in 2004 was the first set race in american history with two black candidates. i was taking -- she talked about this was the first senate race with a black candidate in which race was not one of the issues. >> or publicly was an issue. >> alan keyes tried to claim he was more african-americans and obama and nobody listened to him at all during that election. [talking over each other] >> hoping to run -- [talking over each other] >> i hoped he could debate that

he would look like the date candidate. we are going to open up for questions in a moment. but i thought this was an interesting effort. you talked about this. a great job painting portraits of obama the worker bee. we don't hear much about that. there is so much focus on obama the operator or rock star and you wrote about obama the legislator. some of this work was helping people on welfare. which we don't automatically think of. my question is do you think the image of obama of the legislator who focuses on policy has gotten lost in the national persona? >> those parts were not as interesting or exciting to write about as the campaign. but they were necessary. there were these values in my book but writing about how he

tried after the 1996 welfare reform or republican welfare reform about how he tried to craft a compromise in which people could go back to school when they were receiving welfare. that was one. how he got an anti racial profiling bill passed in the legislature. that was another. >> dr. cobb, you wrote before obama could change america america had to change. what do you mean by that? >> i was trying to tie him to be specific changes that had been happening incrementally in some ways and in huge moments prior to his election. for him to stand up and say that he was the candidate hoping to represent the united states, that would have been a futile ambition had it not been for lots of things prior to that and

in some sense people began to understand or look at obama's campaign in a way that is hard to recall even now two years later. people looked at him with an almost spiritual dimension. i would talk to older people and they would point out these things and people saw the symmetry of him accepting the nomination on the 40 fifth anniversary of the dream speech. it is representative of something, coming 20 years after jesse's campaign, 40 years after dr. king's assassination. release strong ties and that is what i was trying to get at. >> one more thing about obama legislator. one thing i learned researching this book was the number one cause of his political career has been expanding access to

healthcare. in every session of the illinois general assembly he introduced a constitutional amendment to guarantee health care to everyone in illinois. it never passed. in his last term the woody of the -- he could get things done he passed a bill to start a task force to find out how can we -- how can we move toward universal health care in illinois and instrumental in passing a bill that added 20,000 children to the public health care role in illinois. as he worked on the health care reform bill that was something that resonated all the way through his career. >> that will end up in that gop attack ad. >> obama is for making sure everyone can go to the doctor. >> for that --

[talking over each other] >> are taught in moscow last semester. are teaching on the fulbright african-american history. lots about barack obama coming up. at one point, delicately says prof. they call barack obama, a communist. she said perhaps they don't understand communism. perhaps you are right. in moscow we know communists -- that is not one.

>> perfect note to end on. we are happy to take some questions. i had a speech prepared in terms of regulating but we have an intimate crowd. we don't have to regulate too tightly and keep questions within reason. any questions? no one has a question? going, going. >> i will call on people. >> i am a reporter. i will ask you questions. >> there is a microphone. we are recording. >> what i would be curious about is based on what you saw of

obama as a young man, up and coming candidate in chicago, you talk a little bit about the need for a foil. what else to using obama's past history might indicate we will see of him in the next couple years? >> did everyone here that? >> what do i think obama's past history indicates we will see of him in the next couple years? we will see a president who wants to cooperate with the opposition more than the opposition wants to cooperate with him. he definitely learned to work with republicans when he was in illinois. he worked on a death penalty reform bill with a state senator whose nickname was electric ed.

he always looks like a levelheaded guy. the more levelheaded he looks the crazier the republicans will look. this is an instance where his coolness is going to serve him pretty well. he has been criticized for it lately but compared to some of these republicans who are saying no compromise, we will make you a two termer, he will look pretty reasonable. >> one of the things that is interesting about this is obama gave an interview recently to rolling stone where he said he was going to propose a number of compromises and various things, for the republicans were going

to vote against it. so there was nothing to be had from it. one of those things that will play itself out in the next two years is having ramped up the expectations of this particular part of the republican party they have the unsavory job of having to pacify or deliver to that group and they really can't. these midterms actually will strengthen obama's hand in particular kinds of ways. >> two questions. one for ted. you brought up arrogance which we have heard quite a bit in the last several weeks and i have to say -- since he has been

elected. what did their tensions in black politics there represent as a position for that in the future? i am curious where he will end up? >> talking about obama's arrogance? definitely after losing, became less arrogant or learned to hide his arrogance better. first time i saw him in debate he was like this. looked like he had no patience with the senator who was debating him. probably the guy who is most respected, told me at that time is he is a very smart guy but hasn't had a lot of success. tends to put himself above the other people. he likes people to know he went

to harvard. early in his career he saw all he had to do was say i was the first black president of the harvard law review any would get anything he wanted. up to a certain point that was the case. that is how he got his book contract. that is how he got support to the senate. when he ran for congress he reached a point that he went as far as he could and had to start working with his colleagues and people he considered his intellectual inferiors to get something done. >> i had a student who was very gifted and said to her it is always to your benefit to be the smartest person in the room. never to your benefit to sam the smartest person here. regarding jesse jackson, i don't

think there is a big place for him on the public stage anymore. unfortunately in some particular way is the times have passed him by. it is very bad -- -- one of the things that happened in 2008 was he blew his big opportunity to become a kingmaker. this analogy that hope is not too disrespectful, in the last decade he reminded me of a 38-year-old boxer who has a really great future as a trainer bud is instead still trying to

get a title shot. i think that sums it up. i believe in the long view of things. jackson is responsible for much more change than we give him credit for. even if it takes a while people will recognize his influence. many of those african-americans in the clinton administration handpicked by jesse to be there. he was instrumental and ron brown in brazil -- it means a whole list of people that you can talk about not to mention the african-americans like fbn but wilder, nationally expanded the size of the black electorate. down the line people will talk more about those things than the unfortunate things.

>> we have another question that i will piggyback on that. a book came out called party crashing which was specifically about generational differences between the civil rights generation and the hip-hop generation. one question was which of the following people most represents you or speaks for you? overwhelmingly the answer was no. 75% for al sharpton and jesse jackson. was done before his most controversial comments had come out. there's a line in your book that i was debating about asking you where you say there are photos -- one of the famous photo the election night as jesse jackson crying and weeping and a line a lot of people wondered why exactly was he crying? have you decided what the motivation was? >> i like to be large. he was moved by having been

someone who saw dr. king on that balcony and use of barack obama giving that speech. he and the belief and the young, the only people who could say he was there physically in both of those places. i would like to think that is why he was crying. >> very diplomatic. >> another thing he is known for as a charismatic leader is generational appeal or across generations. i am interested to hear your commentary on how that played out in these most recent elections and how that will play out in the future a charismatic leader who motivates my generation to go out and vote.

>> going back to 2008 the reason obama appealed to me was he was somebody who did not come of age in the 60s. the question is what redoing in vietnam? they were continually fighting the 60s. was not relevant. i was not born in 1967. i thought obama could turn the page on that and hillary clinton was somebody who could keep it going. >> this group of voters, i saw this on television. the numbers dino one of the democrats's biggest problems, was on the ballot and that was barack obama because there were many candidates in rural district of southern district or

midwestern districts who could not run far enough from how his favorability rating was hurting their candidacy. the biggest problem was barack obama's name was on the ballot. a certain voting bloc, black voters at young voters who will vote for him. i have been saying since that election that it was the biggest mistake democrats could make, to treat that block of voters like democratic voters instead of like the reagan democrat blue-collar voters we were speaking of the 4 who are essentially swing voters. they might stay home if they don't care for the candidate. the democrats made a mistake in realizing late in the game, a lot of press calls with the chairman they realized late in the game they made an error. they assumed hundreds of thousands of new voters in all of these states who were not really party voters. they were obama specifics

voters. that will be part of the story of the midterm. we will find out how much it turned out to be in 2012 because so many of them have been in it really badly in terms of jobs. worse than some older voters because i was looking at the stretch of me being seven years ahead of someone who graduated from college and what a difference that has made in my job prospects because you had two or three jobs to get the interview for the next one. intern's i worked with, really having a tough time and voted for him in college volunteering and the question is a 23-year-old taxpayer, how will that deal with 2012. that is up in the air. >> that is an important point. one of the other things, people

have said this before. the administration has done a terrible job in terms of talking about what they have done. in terms of the reforms they have done with student loans is something they have pushed in order to say to younger people we have forgotten about you after election day. one of my friends is an activist involved with an anti hiv organization and they were ecstatic when the administration essentially brought together the medical community, people from government to create a comprehensive anti hiv administration which they never had before. you want to have known that.

i was in a room full of hiv activists. i also thank organizing for america has been curiously ineffective compared to the organizing we have seen on the right. perhaps we thought david was going to be invincible and going to organize efforts that would automatically result in young people -- the obama coalition -- >> i was talking about misunderstanding and misidentifying voters because there was this assumption getting e-mails and articles written by people who were never in the generation to make these long determination this where young voters on health care, not

every voter supported health care. there was a variety of reasons they voted for him and that was a mistake to assume every voter was going to be on board. every policy they were going to push. it is one of those things that happens time and time again. >> i wanted to thank you for the interesting panel tonight. i have an observation and question. there has been a lot of analysis by comparison whether it is bobby rush or jesse jackson. i was thinking about the paradox of progress, and irreversible saying in view of the midterm elections. how would you now compare barack obama's chances with being

reelected to the type of successes that jimmy carter had when he was thinking about reelection and seeking office again? >> obama is never going to be as exciting again as he was in 2008. that was a romance and this is the marriage. if democrats think they need to put obama on the campaign trail, and again, they are completely wrong on that. he will be judged by his performance. a lot of young people voted for obama who don't have a job. they thought i was hoping for a job and thought he would change things and things are no better than they were.

as far as comparing him to jimmy carter, he is a more competent president and jimmy carter was. i don't think he is going to have a campaign challenge the way jimmy carter did. >> what do you mean by that? >> edward kennedy ran against jimmy carter -- [talking over each other] >> are don't think republicans have anybody, as exciting as ronald reagan was. republicans are going to nominate mid romney. they always nominate the guy who came in second last time and that is matt ronny. >> one of the things about barack obama and the difference with jimmy carter is people have

a perception that obama is competent fundamentally. i live in georgia. i want to go back home to i don't know what. when carter fought the resignation of his entire cabinet that sent a signal that he picked these people. question that you have to -- why should we believe you have to put together an effective team anywhere? and the country is fundamentally different than what we are facing. is the biggest concern. i think obama will be successful.

one of the other dynamics with the republican party is that they may well or may not nominate mid romney but what will happen in their primary? we remember when the democratic party was like in 2008. various constituencies of the party and obama emerged as someone who held these together. i think is a much more difficult job to do that on the right where you have people who are the kind of sarah palin elements, the mike huckabee elements, has shown it can impact what happens in these. i am hoping they nominate christina o'donnell. >> you just mentioned office.

the president was running on of the campaign's, fired up and ready to go. a lot of the public grab hold of that. looking up president's speech last week, what i heard his he sounded defeated. it is different from campaigning for the job. i am not sure if that is being competed or the public is perceiving that in ways that natural progress of what the president is trying to do or he is just getting in and compromising, bending over and losing that steam. do you think he will do more compromising? he is being levelheaded or do you think the president will be defeated? the republicans seem they don't

want a compromise. >> ultimately democrats do not have control of the house of representatives. that is what it is. the position that clinton found himself in in 94. even with history as a guide, activist forces on the right pushing the republican party in the direction it is talking -- pushing. hard to say they won't overreach in the way newt gingrich did. newt gingrich compared muslims to nazis on fox news. if this is supposed to be the intellectual guy -- >> presidential candidate. >> as a former history

professor, he knows how in after that analogy is and this is what he has to do to shore up the republican base. is hard to say that those forces don't translate into a obama having something in his favor. >> it will be a battle between the traditional wing and the tea party wing of the republican party. a great candidate and crazy candidates will come out and they agree voters and craig the voters, obama will look pretty moderate. >> i do have to say just as as an american, the kind of dissension and rabid divisiveness we have seen in the last couple of years is not pleasing to me.

outside of my political affiliation when we see people who actually believe that the government is being led by a socialist who wasn't born in this country and is actually a radical muslim, it conjures up imagess from timothy mcveigh and oklahoma city in 1995. republican party than was accused and newt gingrich was accused of this anti-government rhetoric that translated into this terroristic act. there's nothing anyone can feel proud of seeing these perceptions, being fomented by fox news, an entire network which has abandoned the ethics

of journalism in news in pursuit of profits and propaganda. >> clinton was seen as the guy who was going to keep the right wing in check and obama could develop the same image. >> as we closed, more of a glass half full kind of gal, i did write a piece more than a year ago and i want to stand by it again later in which i pointed out right after the joe wilson you lied moment in the state of the union address, at before everyone speaks out about people ripping up posters and bringing weapons to rallies let's not forget we have seen this before. we saw it after slaves were freed and the lynching epidemic. we were on the brink of progress. we saw it at the height of the civil-rights movement. we were on the brink of progress. they were seeing we were losing the battle of the country moving forward. i support people's rights to

disagree with the president but when you see the hateful rhetoric we have seen, the level of bullying for the gay teens but juxtapose that against every single poll showing that voters under 30, 90% -- 99% support gay-rights in some form or fashion or at least equality. 99% support interracial marriages. the people who are really angry know that they have lost. it may take another ten years or 20 years for the country to change the way they see it changing. that gives me a little hope that helps me sleep at night even when i hear some of the not so pleasant rhetoric that god there. i want to thank our wonderful panelists. the name of their book is "the substance of hope: barack obama and the paradox of progress". and edward mcclelland's is called "young mr. obama" and they will be out in the lobby for signed copies.

thanks for joining us today. >> this event was hosted by the new york public library center for research and black culture in harlem, new york. for more information please will visit and why deal.org/locations/schaumburg. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2. here is our prime time lineup tonight. starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern, liberal class has been corrupted by what he terms the corporate state. at 8:30 driven west, about andrew jackson and the trail of tears. at 10:00 afterwards with peter

bergen, author of the longest war. >> former governor of virginia george allen. former senator from virginia george allen. what can washington learn from sports? >> a great deal. i learned a lot growing up on the sidelines of the training camp playing sports myself. the overarching thing washington can learn from the world of sports is that in sports where someone is from, race or religion or ethnicity doesn't matter. what matters is can you help the team win? it is a meritocracy where everyone has equal opportunity to compete and succeed. that is where our country was built on. you have ever seen the washington operates, redistributing from the winners to those who are not winners. in washington they take one of the steelers's six super bowl

trophies and say these the 4 clients have never made it to a super bowl. let's give them to a trophy. you have to earn it in sports. there is accountability. and personal responsibility. leou know who is witon oing and losing. there's also in sports a competitiveness that you are always looking how you can imprverne yourself and make you team better. for team america we need to be loiving at what our economic policy, tax policy, energy, education policies which are mostly state, not federal, what can we do to make sure everyone has the opportunity to compete and succeed. i have a chapter in the book that you never punt on first down. we have been pounding on first dochap since the 1970s. those sports teams love to say we are number one. america actually is number one when it comes to energy resources thanks to are plentiful coal as well as gas

and oil resources but the leaders in washington loiv at these resources as a curse. any other country would consider them a blessing. we need to unleash our resources and the resousines of our creative people rather than continue to get jerked around by hostile dictators, oligasinhs ad cartels. >> is the, the kids -- competition getting fiesine the to republicans and democrats? >> sure has been but that is decided by the people. the fans decide who has the best idea and the fans get to vote depending on the office every two or four six years. the fans were not hap le with what was going on in washington. who has been cheering about anything coming on in washington last several years. other than strasbourg with the national baseball team there hasn't been much to cheer about the people of their high-school, college and pro teams. people said we want change.

they see what is going on by any measurement whether it is the lack of jobs, the policies in washington whether it is bailout under president bush or the health care monstrosity or stimulus spending their goods and create joy counterproductive energy policy, none of that is working. so the voters, the people, the fans, the ticket holders, the owners of the government soold e want to change and they made the change in the election and those who have been elected, they need to keep their promise, keep ththerer promises they made to people. that will let least start getting our country b that ik i right direction. >> do you miss being in the arena? >> i do from time to time. susan and i have been acting ae the governor's rays last year and helping congressional candidates in southwestlleirgina to scott at the beach and robert

hurts on the south side and in northernlleirginia. plenty of people have encouraged me to get b that ik into it and will consider that. i am trying to find a unique way of sharing our ideas that make good sense that they understand that will make sure team america is in a better position to be a sending so that everyone has an opportunity to that ihieve tht american dream. ãb > the after word is by the former l a rams deacon jones. >> last year he played with the redskins. deegan is my brother. i call him my older brother deegan. my sister named second kid after him. the first an my oldest daughter -- our oldest daughter's ri